I have a new Pioneer LE with the duct top. The stove is wonderful but to get a bit more heat to the second floor I have a duct top connected to about 5 feet of pipe that goes to a register up stairs. I need to get more air flow up the pipe so i need a good duct fan. The problem is I can't find a duct fan that can handle the air temps of the stove. I bought a areo-flow fan that said it was rated at 245F but it died within a few days.

I've measures the temps of the air and it seems to max out at 180F. I've contacted a couple of fan manufacturers and they all told me the same thing. That 99% of all fans are class B or F rated which is 120F and 140F respectively. The few exceptions I have found are fans designed for smoke and fire mitigation in commercial applications and they cost almost as much as my stove.

What are you guys using?

I know LL has a hot air jacket with a 14" fan on it....would LL mind sharing the manufacturer/model of that fan? I don't have a 14" duct but maybe I can find a similar one thats smaller.

Thanks, I did get mine at areo-flo and it only lasted a few days. I guess it's possible it was a lemon.

I looked up the serial number on the motor and it is also a Class F motor which means the motor is only rated at 140F so they take some liberty with the 260F number. Also, the fan seemed to put out very little cfm.

Hello tmbm50, you might try ducting the other way... what I mean is ducting return air to the current fan on the LL stove.At Lowes and HDepot there are ductwork flanges as well as plastic flanges that can be screwed to the inlet of the didtrbution fan on the stove..Then hook a 4" or 6" cold air return duct to the fan. Pull the air from the farthest point in your house that you can.

The reason that this works is that when you start adding ducting to a stove, you are trying to make it act like a furnace. A furnace never pulls cold air from a basement, it has cold air return ducts that hook to a fan box on the furnace. With the forced hot air going out, and the cool return air getting reheated, it creates a circulation loop.

When we add a hot air duct to a stove, and try to push the hot air into upper floors, we are neglecting the other half of the circulation loop.

You can use inexpensive dryer vent fo this cold air return, unless you route it through unheated rooms.